This 68-Year-Old Disabled Vietnam Vet Did One Thing That Sent These Robbers Running For Their Lives

Sixty-eight-year-old Joseph Sapienza lives alone in the house his grandfather built in 1901 in the small North Carolina town of Gastonia. A Marine Corps veteran who served a four-year stint in Vietnam, Sapienza is disabled and uses a walker to get around.

But Joseph Sapienza is clearly not helpless and not inclined to be anybody’s victim.

According to a police report, Sapienza was lying in bed watching television one night recently when he heard someone prying off the lock and trying to break in through his front door. That’s when the former Marine did what the would-be home invaders likely thought a disabled guy using a walker wouldn’t do.

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Sapienza defended himself and his home in the best way he knew.

According to the Gaston Gazette, Sapienza grabbed his .45-caliber handgun, slipped it in a holster strapped on his walker, and began shuffling toward the sound.

He flipped a hallway light on, yelled out to announce he was armed, and yanked open the door to see two men wearing ski masks.

They jumped off his porch and practically tripped over one another trying to flee, Sapienza said.

“It was like a keystone cops scene,” he said. “When they saw the .45, one ran one way up the street, and the other went the other way.”

Sapienza says of the attemped break-in:

“People see me as an easy mark,” he said. “They probably thought ‘we’re going to get this man’s money.’”

The combat veteran hopes the suspects don’t come back, for their sake.

And to warn the bad guys to stay away or face the wrath of a former Marine who’s “pretty good” with a pistol, Joseph Sapienza taped an “enter at your own risk” note to his damaged front door.